Trash-Talking Dyster Supporter Cops Top Garbage Job

July 15, 2014

Dumpster stuffing? When Mayor Paul Dyster’s new trash plan is rolled out, there are going to be scenes like this, since Dyster will not permit people to dispose of what they normally throw out at curb side. Brook D’Angelo will field complaints.

The Niagara Falls Reporter has learned that Brook D’Angelo, the politically active ally of Mayor Paul Dyster, will be named as the city’s new chief trash inspector. The job was never publicly advertised and while details as to pay, duties, and work hours are unavailable, sources say D'Angelo will start at $13 per hour.

D’Angelo, Reporter readers may recall, was the lady who trash-talked Sam Fruscione throughout 2013 and especially during last year’s council race. She served as the radio voice in attack ads that aired on WJJL last year. The ads were savage attacks on two-term councilman Fruscione regarding his demand to hold the feet of Buffalo-based developer Mark Hamister to the fire.

In hindsight, Fruscione’s approach to Hamister’s proposal was justified, while D’Angelo’s shrew-like attacks on Fruscione were false and abusive.

But Niagara Falls politics being what they are and with Mayor Paul Dyster being a firm believer in the “friends and family policy” when it comes to handing out jobs, awarding contracts and tossing away casino cash, D’Angelo comes out the winner.

Worth noting is that it was D’Angelo’s writing partner on those anti-Fruscione City Democratic Committee radio spots, Ryan Undercoffer, who first landed a city hall patronage job courtesy of the three people who beat out Fruscione, Council members Charles Walker, Andrew Touma, and Kristen Grandinetti, and city Democratic Committee Chairwoman Alicia Laible.

Dyster supporter Brook
D’Angelo gets trash job.

The triumvirate of Walker, Touma and Grandinetti ousted council secretary Kevin J. Ormsby in order to make room for stripling Undercoffer. At the time of Undercoffer’s hire, Walker told the media “we hired him because he was young.” Grandinetti characterized him to the press as a “young fresh face.”

Ormsby was 61.

Worth noting is that Undercoffer was given the council secretary job without a public posting of the position or a disclosure of his resume. He, like D’Angelo, was the only candidate interviewed for the position. Ormsby’s removal resulted in him filing an age-discrimination complaint with the New York State Division of Human Rights.

Walker declined to explain why he supported the hiring of D’Angelo for the trash post. Her background as a Hard Rock Café photographer or events planner or rock singer perhaps had little to do with meeting the minimum qualifications. Then again, the qualifications for the job were never advertised so, as usual, residents are in the dark when dealing with Dyster’s city hall. All they will know is that when they have a problem with trash, or when trash has a problem with them, D'Angelo will be the face of that problem and hopefully its solution.

Those in the know tell us that Dyster and Walker will downplay her hire and claim the job is temporary.

Reliable sources tell us that D’Angelo is set to become a highly-paid full-time employee once the 2015 city budget is approved.